Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Invertebrate Systematics Invertebrate Systematics Society
Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > IS > IS08032
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 23(2)

Revision of the oribatid mite genus Austronothrus Hammer (Acari : Oribatida): sexual dimorphism and a re-evaluation of the phylogenetic relationships of the family Crotoniidae

Matthew J. Colloff A B and Stephen L. Cameron A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: matt.colloff@csiro.au

Invertebrate Systematics 23(2) 87-110 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS08032
Submitted: 18 August 2008  Accepted: 10 April 2009   Published: 4 June 2009

Abstract

The Gondwanan relict oribatid mite family Crotoniidae contains the genera Austronothrus Hammer, 1966, Crotonia Thorell, 1876 and Holonothrus Wallwork, 1963. This family is of considerable interest biogeographically and also because the members of the family may have re-evolved sexuality from thelytokous parthenogenetic ancestors. Crotonia and Holonothrus are speciose and widely distributed whereas Austronothrus is obscure, hitherto monospecific and known only from New Zealand. We revise Austronothrus and compare it with its better-known congeners. Two new species of Austronothrus are described from New Zealand, namely A. clarki, sp. nov., and A. flagellatus, sp. nov. The only previously known species, Austronothrus curviseta Hammer, 1966, is redescribed and the genus is redefined. The presence of male specimens of all species confirmed Austronothrus as a sexual genus, like its congeners. Secondary sexual characteristics within Austronothrus and Crotonia include significant differences in body size and proportion, as well as the lengths and shapes of various setae, predominantly those of the notogastral region. Because these characters are frequently used by taxonomists to separate and define species within the Crotoniidae, it is important that the sex of adult specimens be determined to avoid describing conspecific males and females as separate species. A phylogenetic analysis based on morphological characters shows the crotoniid genera nested within the Camisiidae, with Camisia von Heyden, 1826 basal to the crotoniid clade of Austronothrus, Holonothrus and Crotonia, and with a clade of Platynothrus Berlese, 1913, Heminothrus Berlese, 1913 and Paracamisia Olszanowski & Norton, 2002 (Camisiidae) forming the sister clade of Camisia + Crotoniidae. Thus, Camisiidae is paraphyletic with respect to Crotoniidae. The family Crotoniidae is revised in light of the cladistic analysis, and relegated to subfamily rank. Three subfamilies are defined within the Camisiidae : Crotoniinae (containing Crotonia, Austronothrus and Holonothrus), Camisiinae (containing Camisia) and Heminothridae, subfam. nov. (containing Heminothrus, Platynothrus and Neonothrus Forsslund, 1955). Nothrus maximus Trägårdh, 1901 belongs to the genus Platynothrus and is recombined.

Additional keywords: Camisiinae, cladistic, Gondwana, Heminothrinae, morphology, New Zealand, secondary sexual characteristics, systematics.


Acknowledgements

We thank Mr John Clark (School of Applied Sciences and Allied Health, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, New Zealand) for the donation of specimens from Egmont, Dr Ting-Kui Qin (formerly of Landcare Research, Auckland) for the loan of material from the New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Dr Anne Baker (Department of Entomology, Natural History Museum, London) for access to material in the Michael collection and Dr Nikolaj Scharff (Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen) for the loan of Hammer’s specimens of Austronothrus curviseta. Finally, we thank Dr Bruce Halliday (CSIRO Entomology), Dr Valerie Behan-Pelletier (Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Ottawa) and Professor Roy Norton (College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse) for discussions on the phylogenetic relationships and classification of the Crotonioidea, for drawing our attention to the status of Platynothrus maximus, and for reading the manuscript and providing useful comments.


References


André H. M., Voegtlin D. J. (1981) Some observations on the biology of Camisia carrolli (Acari: Oribatida). Acarologia 23, 81–89. open url image1

André H. M., Lebrun P., Leroy S. (1984) The systematic status and geographical distribution of Camisia segnis (Acari: Oribatida). International Journal of Acarology 10, 153–158.
| Crossref |
open url image1

Baker R. A., Colloff M. J. (2006) Albert Davidson Michael (1836–1927) and his wife Anne, partners in acarology and microscopy. Quekett Journal of Microscopy 40, 229–241. open url image1

Balogh J. (1972). ‘The Oribatid Genera of the World.’ (Akademai Kiadó: Budapest.)

Balogh J. , and Balogh P. (1992). ‘The Oribatid Mite Genera of the World. Vol. 1.’ (Hungarian Natural History Museum: Budapest.)

Balogh J. , and Mahunka S. (1983). ‘The Soil Mites of the World. Vol. 1. Primitive Oribatids of the Palaearctic Region.’ (Akademai Kiadó: Budapest.)

Berlese A. (1913) Acari nuovi. Manipulus VII–VIII. Redia (Firenze) 9, 77–111. open url image1

Cianciolo J. M., Norton R. A. (2006) The ecological distribution of reproductive mode in oribatid mites, as related to biological complexity. Experimental & Applied Acarology 40, 1–25.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Colloff M. J. (1990) New species of Crotonia (Acari: Oribatida) from South Africa. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 100, 403–419.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Colloff M. J. (1993) A taxonomic revision of the oribatid mite genus Camisia (Acari : Oribatida). Journal of Natural History 27, 1325–1408.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Colloff M. J. (2009) New species of Crotonia (Acari: Oribatida) from Tasmanian rainforest, and the habitat preferences of Crotoniidae. Zootaxa 2027, 43–54. open url image1

Domes K., Norton R. A., Maraun M., Scheu S. (2007) Reevolution of sexuality breaks Dollo’s law. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 104, 7139–7144.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | open url image1

Grandjean F. (1947) Observations sur les Oribates (34° série). Bulletin du Museum nationale d’Histoire Naturelle, 2nd Series 19, 395–402. open url image1

Grandjean F. (1954) Essai de classification des Oribates (Acariens). Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 78, 421–446. open url image1

Grandjean F. (1956a) Observations sur les Oribates (34° série). Bulletin du Museum nationale d’Histoire Naturelle, 2nd Series 28, 205–212. open url image1

Grandjean F. (1956b) Characteres chitineux de l’ovipositeur, en structure normale, chez les Oribates (Acariens). Archives de Zoologie Expérimentale et Générale 93, 96–106. open url image1

Hammer M. (1966) Investigations of the oribatid fauna of New Zealand. Part 1. Biologiske Skrifter det Kongelige Dansk Videnskabernes Selskab 15, 1–156. open url image1

Hammer M., Wallwork J.A. (1979) A review of the world distribution of oribatid mites (Acari: Cryptostigmata) in relation to continental drift. Biologiske Skrifter det Kongelige Dansk Videnskabernes Selskab 22, 1–31. open url image1

Hunt G. S. , Norton R. A. , Kelly J. P. H. , Colloff M. J. , and Lindsay S. M. (1998). ‘Oribatid Mites: An Interactive Glossary of Oribatid Mites, CD-ROM.’ (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.)

Lee D. C. (1985) Sarcoptiformes (Acari) of South Australian soils. 4. Primitive oribate mites (Cryptostigmata) with an extensive, unfissured hysteronotal shield and aptychoid. Records of the South Australian Museum 19, 39–67. open url image1

Łochyńska M. (2008a) Two new Tasmanian species of the genus Holonothrus (Acari: Oribatida: Crotoniidae). New Zealand Journal of Zoology 35, 29–51. open url image1

Łochyńska M. (2008b) The ontogenetic description of two Tasmanian crotoniid mites (Acari: Oribatida: Crotoniidae). International Journal of Acarology 34, 123–142. open url image1

Low A. J. (1986) Tree planting in the Falkland Islands. Forestry 59, 59–84.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Luxton M. (1982) Species of the genus Crotonia (Acari: Cryptostigmata) from New Zealand. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 76, 243–271.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Luxton M. (1985). Cryptostigmata (Arachnida: Acari) – a concise review. In ‘Fauna of New Zealand No. 7’. pp. 1–106.

Luxton M. (1987) New mites of the family Crotoniidae (Acari: Cryptostigmata) from Northern Queensland. Acarologia 28, 381–388. open url image1

Maddison D. R. , and Maddison W. M. (2000). ‘MacClade 4 Analysis of Phylogeny and Character Evolution. Version 4.06 .’ (Sinauer Associates Inc.: Sunderland, MA.)

Marshall V. G., Reeves R. M., Norton R. A. (1987) Catalogue of the Oribatida (Acari) of continental United States and Canada. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 139, 1–418. open url image1

McGlone M., Wilmshurst J., Meurk C. (2007) Climate, fire, farming and the recent vegetation history of subantarctic Campbell Island. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 98, 71–84. open url image1

Michael A. D. (1908) Unrecorded Acari from New Zealand. Journal of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 30, 134–149.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Norton R. A., Kethley J. B. (1994) Ecdysial cleavage lines of acariform mites (Arachnida: Acari). Zoologica Scripta 23, 175–191.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Norton R. A., Olszanowski Z. (1989) A new Holonothrus (Oribatida: Crotoniidae) from Zaïre, with notes on the distribution of crotoniid mites. Revue de Zoologie Africaine 103, 405–412. open url image1

Olszanowski Z. (1996) A monograph of the Nothridae and Camisiidae of Poland (Acari: Oribatida: Crotonioidea). Genus (Wroclaw) (Suppl.), 1–201. open url image1

Olszanowski Z. (2000) Two new Australian species of Crotonia (Acari: Oribatida), with new records of Crotonioidea from the Australian region. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 46, 239–248. open url image1

Olszanowski Z., Norton R. A. (2002) Paracamisia osornensis gen n., sp. n. (Acari: Oribatida) from Valdivian forest soil in Chile. Zootaxa 25, 1–15. open url image1

Olszanowski Z., Szywilewska A., Norton R. A. (2001) New moss mite of the genus Camisia from western Nearctic region (Acari: Oribatida: Camisiidae). Genus 12, 395–406. open url image1

Olszanowski Z., Clayton M. R., Humble L. M. (2002) New species of the Camisia (Acari: Oribatida): an arboreal mite with enclosed sensilli. Canadian Entomologist 134, 707–721. open url image1

Palmer S. C., Norton R. A. (1991) Taxonomic, geographic and seasonal distribution of thelytokous parthenogenesis in the Desmonomata (Acari: Oribatida). Experimental & Applied Acarology 12, 67–81.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Ramsay G. W. (1969) A redescription of Acronothrus nukuhivae Jacot, 1935 (Acarina: Cryptostigmata) from the Marquesas Islands. Pacific Insects 11, 175–179. open url image1

Ramsay G. W., Luxton M. (1967) A redescription of the type specimen of Crotonia (= Acronothrus) obtecta (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1875), (Acari: Cryptostigmata) and a discussion of its taxonomic status. Journal of Natural History 4, 473–480.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Seniczak S. (1990a) The morphology of juvenile stages of moss mites of the family Camisiidae (Acari: Oribatida). Part I. Zoologischer Anzeiger 225, 71–86. open url image1

Seniczak S. (1990b) The morphology of juvenile stages of moss mites of the family Camisiidae (Acari: Oribatida). Part II. Zoologischer Anzeiger 225, 151–160. open url image1

Seniczak S. (1990c) The morphology of juvenile stages of moss mites of the family Camisiidae (Acari: Oribatida). Part III. Zoologischer Anzeiger 225, 311–323. open url image1

Seniczak S. (1991a) The morphology of juvenile stages of moss mites of the family Camisiidae (Acari: Oribatida). IV. Zoologischer Anzeiger 226, 267–279. open url image1

Seniczak S. (1991b) The morphology of juvenile stages of moss mites of the family Camisiidae (Acari: Oribatida). V. Zoologischer Anzeiger 227, 173–184. open url image1

Seniczak S., Zelazna E. (1992) The morphology of juvenile stages of moss mites of the family Nothridae (Acari: Oribatida). II. Zoologischer Anzeiger 229, 149–162. open url image1

Sorenson M. D. (1999). ‘Tree Rot Version 2 .’ (Boston University: Boston, MA.)

Starý J., Block W. (1996) Oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) of the Falkland Islands, South Atlantic and their zoogeographical relationships. Journal of Natural History 30, 523–535.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Subías L. S. (2004) Listado sistemático sinonímico y biogeográficco de los ácaros oribátidos (Acariformes, Oribatida) del mundo (1758–2002). Graellsia 60(Suppl.), 3–305. open url image1

Swofford D. L. (2002). ‘PAUP* Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (* and Other Methods). Version 4.’ (Sinauer Associates Inc.: Sunderland, MA.)

Szywilewska A., Olszanowski Z., Norton R. A. (2005) New oribatid mite of the genus Crotonia (Acari: Oribatida: Crotoniidae) from Chile. Annales Zoologici 55, 449–452. open url image1

Trägårdh I. (1901) Nothrus maximus, eine neue Oribatide, fossil in der ‘Glossotherium-höhle’ gefunden und recent noch in Patagonien fortlebende. Zoologischer Anzeiger 24, 25–29. open url image1

Travé J. (1992) La chaetotaxie du Palpe des Nothroides (Oribates). Acarologia 33, 377–385. open url image1

Travé J., Vachon M. (1975) François Grandjean, 1882–1975 (notice biographique et bibliographique). Acarologia 17, 1–19.
| PubMed |
open url image1

Wallwork J. A. (1966) More oribatid mites (Acari: Cryptostigmata) from Campbell I. Pacific Insects 8, 849–877. open url image1

Wallwork J. A. (1977) On the genus Crotonia Thorell 1876 (Acari: Cryptostigmata). Acarologia 19, 513–539. open url image1

Woodring J. P. (1970) Comparative morphology, homologies and functions of the male system in oribatid mites (Arachnida: Acari). Journal of Morphology 132, 425–451.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | CAS | PubMed | open url image1